Multimedia communications will assume greater importance as broadband and next generation wireless services emerge. While there are currently systems that provide personal call management (PCM) for both wireline, and wireless transmission of audio signals, well-defined solutions do not exist for personal call management of calls based on multimedia data.
In the audio transmission context, the use of caller line identification (known as CLID, CLI or CID) systems in landline telephone systems as well as mobile telephone systems is well known. In a typical CID system, a display at the site of the called party provides the name and/or telephone number of a caller soon after the called party's telephone begins to ring. Thus, the called party can determine whether to take a call based on the name or telephone number of the calling party. The determination of whether to take a call based on such limited information can lead to rejection of important calls or reception of unwanted calls.
United States Statutory Invention Registration (SIR) No. H1714, published Mar. 3, 1998, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a caller identification system that, in addition to sending the name and telephone number of a caller, also sends an image associated with the calling party.
However, the caller identification system disclosed in SIR H1714 is for use in a conventional (landline) telephone system. In conventional systems there is typically sufficient bandwidth available in the telephone system such that the additional bandwidth required to send an image with other caller identification information does not interfere with the signaling required to establish a call between the calling party and the called party. In typical mobile applications, the bandwidth available for caller identification in existing networks is limited and cannot typically support the sending of a caller's image along with other caller identification information. Future generation networks (including third generation networks) are being designed with additional bandwidth to support additional service features; however, these networks are not expected to be deployed on a wide scale until well into the future. Furthermore, even with a CID system that successfully sends an image associated with the calling party, the subject matter of the call may still remain unknown.